Transactional data is one of the most useful pieces of information used to create plans and strategies for any company’s future growth planning. If the past data shows a positive and consistent growth year-over-year, a business may plan for expansions. This information is crucial for companies looking to merge or be acquired, because unlike the blind purchases on Storage Wars, the company taking over will demand the data before paying for their investment. In 2020, businesses took an extra close look at their spending habits. They trimmed a lot of additional expenses that were being previously ignored. When asking customers about their process, we heard a repeated frustration — it was the hassle of getting access to their transactional history.

Have you ever been unable to track down your transaction history? With the unfathomable limits of data storage and so much relying on data reporting, it is unclear why some businesses make it hard for customers to have access to their transaction history. Multiple times a year, businesses make strategic plans. These strategies are created using reports and data, of course! Without the correct information, trajectories for future spending wouldn’t be possible, nor would they be accurate. And without all of the years of previous data, they would be unable to see patterns, growth or outliers.

As a customer ourselves to many businesses, such as banking, analytic researching and ad buying, we run into this issue frequently as well. It is important to have access to our transaction history for many reasons. However, what is frustrating is the roadblocks placed to keep customers from searching independently. Some requests can take days or even weeks for associates to gather and present the date. Where is this the data stored and why isn’t it accessible? Why isn’t the information easily available without a guided-hand of an associate?

While the transactions for some are stored out of sight, other reputable companies such as CapitalOne and PayPal make the data unobtainable after 3+ years. This is a major issue that creates a lot of headaches for something as simple as recovering lines of history.

There are many questions revolving around where the data is and why it’s hidden from the customer. If it lies with technology being the issue, having an API could make it easier to access the product's information. An API would allow for less customer service resources to be tied up answering requests. It would be more direct and consistent in obtaining information. And if the API was built with rules that guided a customer’s journey through the company’s software, it would lead to an overall better experience. And as we all know, a better experience will always generate more pros than cons.

ChargeOver has a mission to make that data transparent, accessible and available forever. Check out our API to see how it's able to retrieve transactional history from whenever. You can also pull data for reporting from this API as well. It isn't a challenge to create a user friendly way to retrieve data and we believe that it’s going to benefit the people who truly matter — our customers. So, why are these other companies withholding transactional data?

Before wrapping up this unanswered question. We want to hear more stories, more challenges and more about companies withholding your data. To share your story, send an email to mailto:support@chargeover.com or on Twitter or on Linkedin

Talk soon!